• Cassie Cava had funding cut while in psychiatric hospital• ‘I was pushed to suicidal feelings and given no support’

An independent investigation has been launched after a British para-snowboarding athlete, who had her UK Sport funding cut while she was being treated in a psychiatric hospital, made allegations of disability and sex discrimination.

Cassie Cava, who starred in the “This Girl Can” advertising campaign, was raped by a group of men while abroad in 2013 and had her foot amputated in 2014. But she claimed that when she made senior figures within British Parasnowsport aware of the impact these two episodes had taken on her mental health she was discriminated against and left feeling alienated, alleging one of them asked: “Do you want to hang yourself?”